


Constants

by ShoshanaFics



Category: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead - Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990) RPF
Genre: Existentialism, Just. Just a lot of gay, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Unreliable Narrator, this fandom needs more content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShoshanaFics/pseuds/ShoshanaFics
Summary: "We're in love?" This takes a moment to process. "Yes. Yes, it appears so." He smiles softly to no one in particular. "That's nice."In a world with no constants but death, it's somehow better to have one than two.In a world with no constants but death, it's better to be one of two than one of one.





	Constants

If he has to be honest with himself, and he really does, because who else can you trust if not yourself... he can't really remember back too long. Still, as long as he can remember, he has been one of a pair. 

(Which one is he again?)

Facts come to him reluctantly, like waking from a frightening, feverish dream, and even then he can't tell if they're true or not. He knows that Guildenstern loves the snow, and that Rosencrantz drinks tea without sugar or honey; strange bits of a life he met have lived at some point. 

(He must have... he must have, right?)

Guildenstern is more prone to hysteria, but when Rosencrantz gets anxious he reins it in to help his friend stay grounded. When rosencrantz notices Guildenstern starting to fly off, he ropes him into some game of wits or numbers to distract him. 

They are a team, a pair, a unit. Before... all this, other people got them mixed up all the time.

(Did they? What happened before all this?) 

Rosencrantz couldn't understand that. It's not like we look alike, he would say, and Guildenstern would chuckle, because what else could he do? 

He closes his eyes for a second, then opens them again, filled for a brief, terrifying moment with the all-encompassing fear that if he didn't look at himself, he would cease to be. A hand takes his and squeezes it. 

Grounding. Distracting. Loving. 

"I think," he says at length, "I am in love with you." 

This takes a moment to process. "What?" 

"I'm in love with you," he says again. "I thought that was obvious." 

"I-" he stops and thinks. "Oh. Oh. Yes. It's true." 

"Yes." 

"We are." 

"It seems so." 

"I am." 

"I'm glad. I love you. I'd rather it be reciprocated." 

"So would I." 

"So that means..." 

"You love me." 

"I do." 

"And I love you." 

"I'm glad. I'm in love with you, you know." 

"But..." This does seem to be the question of the hour. "How do you _know_?" 

"How do I know what?" 

"That we're in love!" 

"We're in love?" This takes a moment to process. "Yes. Yes, it appears so." He smiles softly to no one in particular. "That's nice." 

"It is." 

"But... how do we know?" 

"That does seem to be the question of the hour." 

There are many questions. There is one question, somewhere very deep down, like a lantern light in the very dark, and it frightens both of them in a way that neither fully understands. 

(Does it really matter who is who?) 

Does it really matter who is who? 

It doesn't, of course, he muses, unless you take into account personal pride. And when are we not, honestly? It must be part of being human. 

"It is better," he says, "to have one shared constant, than to have two separate constants." 

"Hmm," he says. 

"Yes," he replies, "because sharing one constant between two people means twice the people who know it to be true." 

"Whereas, with one per person..." 

"There's no one to tell you if it's true or not," he finishes. 

They sit in silence. 

"I'm glad you're my constant," he says after a while. 

"Are you?" 

"Yes." 

"I am as well." 

It's not that one of them is Guildenstern, or even that the other is Rosencrantz. They are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And that is enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all liked this!!!! Find me on tumblr @ inyrphilosophy :DD


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